


confrontations

by indecisivebehaviors



Series: Can't fight this feeling [8]
Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Light Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Multi, canon compliant levels of irresponsible adults, established relationships - Freeform, like very light, teenagers with unhealthy responses to being threatened, this is the antithesis of that one meme asking why they don't just call the cops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29661825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indecisivebehaviors/pseuds/indecisivebehaviors
Summary: 'He can feel when Miguel stiffens beside him. It doesn’t take a genius to guess why.'The kids get to see a welcome familiar face and several very unwelcomed ones.---(set prior to 'toy soldiers')
Relationships: (implied) Demetri/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence, Miguel Diaz & Robby Keene, Miguel Diaz/Samantha LaRusso, Robby Keene & Samantha LaRusso
Series: Can't fight this feeling [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2200365
Comments: 6
Kudos: 52





	confrontations

After  _ a lot _ of back and forth, Sam is the one who ends up driving them all to school.

“Are you guys sure you’ll be fine?” He knows Mr. LaRusso is just worried about them, but  _ holy shit _ , “Because you know Johnny we can drive you. It really isn’t a problem, and I’d feel a lot better about all of this if you did.”

Robby, in theory, knows why Mr. L is so sketched out by all of this. It had taken almost a week of fighting with the school board, and the principal, to let him come back to school. He wasn’t sure why they’d even bothered honestly, he could’ve just gotten his GED, gone back to work for the dealership maybe. But, he and his dad had insisted that they at least  _ try _ and convince him. Miguel, unsurprisingly, had been both the one to convince him it was a good idea, and also the one to eventually convince the board. He’s still not really sure  _ how _ that happened; his assumption was just a combination of puppy dog eyes and the kid’s weird ability to just be liked by everyone in the room no matter what.

Sam had hugged her dad that morning and had told him in a direct tone, no room for argument, “Daddy. We are gonna be fine. Nothing is gonna happen, we’ve got each other, plus a whole lot of back up,” she smirks, “I’ll make sure to keep the boys in line.”

Robby had just rolled his eyes while Miguel laughed next to him.

“Daniel, seriously,” his dad had said over what Robby assumed was his fourth cup of coffee(the man really was not meant to be a morning person), “If they say they’re gonna be fine, then they’ll be fine.” Mr. L hadn’t looked very convinced, and if he’s being honest his dad hadn’t sounded very convinced either but he had dropped the issue.

Which is how he finds himself looking up at the imposing steps of West Valley High School.

Miguel elbowed him in the side when he’d frozen in the parking lot, “Hey. You sure you’re gonna be alright?” He and Sam looked genuinely concerned.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to channel every single piece of zen shit Mr. L had ever taught him, “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” he tries to smirk, “Let’s just get this shit over with.”

Sam chuckled at his side, “That’s the spirit.”

They walked on either side of him, almost like sentries, and it wasn’t hard to figure out why. He knew what they looked like, their weird little group, who not very long ago had started the biggest all-out brawl the school had ever, or more likely, will ever. The stares and whispers had started almost the second they’d pulled into the parking lot. No one, or at least he thought no one outside of their small group of dojo kids, knew about anything that had happened during the break, so he’s not surprised when they get met with wide-eyed staring and whispers.

He’s almost grateful for the distraction when they’re accosted by a very enthusiastic Hawk, dragging Demetri behind him. Demetri looks very put open by being yanked across campus, but he’s only fondly rolling his eyes at the boy pulling him by the wrist.

“Hey, guys!” Hawk is pulling Miguel into a side hug, arm around his shoulders, and Diaz is laughing, “You’ll never guess who we ran into-”

“Aisha!” Sam is the first to see her approach and rushes forward to hug her tightly, which she’s quick to return, laughing loudly.

“Hey girlie, long time no see.” She says with the biggest grin on her face.

“I thought you were still going to that private school,” Sam pulls back slightly, “Why didn’t you tell me your parents were letting you come back?”

Aisha just smirks, “I wanted it to be a surprise, duh,” she laughs again, “So surprise!”

Miguel goes to hug her next when Sam finally lets her go, “Man, it’s so good to see you again!”

He stands back awkwardly, before Demetri checks him in the shoulder, “It’s good to have you back too, man.”

He gives him a lopsided grin, “Good to be back I guess,” he glances back towards the door, “Well y’know, not back  _ here, _ but y’know what I mean.” Demetri only laughs.

The stares and whispers don’t stop as the day goes on. It helps slightly, that it seems that he has almost all of his classes with at least one of them, at least in the morning. He’d actually been very surprised to find, after they’d gotten the new schedules, that he and Miguel had basically all of their classes together(he doesn’t say it but he’s  _ pretty fucking sure  _ that Diaz had something to do with that too), considering he’d been certain that the school would’ve wanted them as far away as possible from each other, truce or not. He mostly chalks it up to shitty management.

Every once in a while he’ll spot someone he recognizes as Cobra Kai, but they don’t approach them in the halls, security much tighter than he ever remembers it being. They seem to mostly be upperclassmen, so he doesn’t see any of them in most of his classes.

His classes are, predictably, equally very boring and incredibly frustrating. It also really doesn’t fucking help that Miguel also has basically no idea what’s going on either because they’d both missed basically half the school year. He knows they’re both probably gonna have to ask Sam or Demetri to explain a bunch of shit later on. It really doesn’t help that with every new class they have together, they get wide-eyed stares from the teachers when he, Diaz, and Sam(and one very horrified look from the math teacher when Hawk had sat with them that he’ll never admit to finding very funny), inevitably, end up sitting together. The history teacher even  _ winces _ the first time Miguel raises his hand.

When lunch finally rolls around he hears Diaz, the only one of their group in this class, sigh dramatically in relief, and he really can’t help but agree. Sam and the others find the two of them in the hall, and they walk, as a group, down to the cafeteria; Hawk and Demetri talking animatedly about something he couldn’t follow even if he wanted to, but that Aisha seems to know a great deal about.

He can hear the loud chatter from the cafeteria before they arrive, but when they walk through the doors, the room goes silent.

He can feel his chest seize up when he sees their heads turn to look at them,  _ at him, _ and he’s fully prepared to flee the room when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He glances over, to see it’s Diaz, and he’s glaring out into the crowd, like he’s challenging them to say something,  _ anything _ , to them. Hawk is quick to his side, squaring his shoulders with a hard stare. He feels Sam, on his other side, puts a hand on his back, a determined look on her face, directing him over to the line, and the others follow suit.

It’s still incredibly uncomfortable when they find a table, can still feel the eyes on the back of his neck, but soon the noise of the room comes back full force, and everyone else seems to start consciously ignoring them.

_ It’s fine,  _ he thinks, with Miguel and Sam on either side and their friends with them,  _ it’s fine. _

Aisha is poking fun at Hawk for something he doesn’t catch, Demetri ribbing him along with her and Sam laughing at the exasperated expression on his face. He can feel himself slowly starting to calm down when Miguel starts laughing with them too.  _ This might not be so bad. _

He can feel when Miguel stiffens beside him. It doesn’t take a genius to guess why.

“Oh look, it’s the  _ traitors. _ ”

They all turn to look, and there they are; Tory, and Kyler, surrounded by the other Cobras.

Aisha, surprisingly, is the first to speak up, “ _ Back off _ , Tory.” There’s a hard edge to her voice that seems to startle Tory for a second before she scowls.

“Seriously assholes, fuck off,” Hawk snarls, and Demetri backs him up, “We don’t want anything to do with you.”

Kyler sneers at them, “Yeah I don’t think so, Scarface. See, you disrespected Sensei Kreese, you, Keene, and Diaz over there, and we really can’t let that stand, y’know?” The group around him laughs.

Demetri grabs Hawk by the arm when he goes to stand, “He’s not worth it, Eli.” Hawk looks ready to kill him, but he doesn’t shrug off the hand, even when Kyler sneers at them.

“Yeah, you probably wanna listen to your boyfriend there,  _ Eli.”  _ He can see the way his jaw tenses.

He chances a glance over at Sam, who is sitting stiff, eyes locked on Tory, then at Diaz, and if looks could kill Kyler would be dead on the floor, his body tensed like a spring. He acts without really thinking, reaching up to squeeze his shoulder. Miguel jerks his head over to look at him, and he almost goes to remove the hand when the expression drops off his face, and he lets out the breath he’d been holding.

Kyler’s mocking laugh draws his attention back, and he scowls when he opens his mouth again, “Honestly? Consider yourselves lucky. We’ve been given orders  _ not _ to kick your asses just yet.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” He snaps.

Tory sneers at him, “Sensei says we can’t risk the All Valley to give you what you deserve,” then she smirks maliciously, “We’ll have plenty of opportunities to do that at the tournament. At least if your dad isn’t a fucking coward.”

He almost decks her right there.

So he’s almost relieved when a teacher walks over, a security guard in tow, “Students, what seems to be the problem here?” She glances around at all of them nervously, and briefly looking surprised when she sees him there, sitting there, probably expecting him to be, well, honestly anywhere else except at this table.

“No ma’am,” Sam speaks up, but she isn’t looking at the teacher, eyes never leaving Tory’s face, her voice scarily calm, “There’s no problem here. Right guys?”

Tory smiles, and it looks more like she’s bearing her teeth, “Of course not. No problem at all.”

The teacher doesn’t look very convinced, and he can tell she’s nervous even when she tries to tell them sternly, “Well, in that case, you can all find your seats.”

The Cobras turn to leave, but when the teacher turns her back, he sees Kyler cracking his knuckles, and Tory smirks, running her thumb across her throat, “We’ll be seeing you, very,  _ very soon. _ ”

The table is left in tense silence, and he realizes belatedly that they aren’t the only ones. The room had gone still, watching to see what they’d do.

Demetri is the one to break the silence, hunched over, whispering, “I thought you said Kreese  _ disappeared _ after- _. _ ”

“He  _ did  _ disappear,” Sam cuts him off sharply, but sags into her chair a second later, “At least, we thought he did.”

“Then why are  _ his  _ Cobras still talking like he’s still around?”

“Do you think he’s still teaching?” Aisha asks.

“Sure as hell sounds like it.” Hawk grumbles, sinking into his own chair.

“Please fucking tell me your dads’ are gonna start teaching again?” Aisha asks, with some small desperation in her voice, “We need that merged dojo, like, yesterday.”

He blinks, surprise coloring his face, “Wait, what are you talking about? Merged dojo?” He sees Sam and Miguel share a tense look across the table.

There’s a long silence before Miguel speaks up, “So, y’know how I said we were trying to start a truce, the night that... well you know. We were kinda hoping that if we could get everyone on board that we could  _ maybe  _ convince Sensei and Mr. L to join dojos for a while to get an edge on Cobra Kai.”

Robby can feel himself stare wide-eyed at him, in silent disbelief-

And then he busts out laughing. It takes a minute for him to calm down enough to realize he’s the only one.

He furrows his brow, immediately sobering, and looks around the table, “Wait you aren’t actually fucking serious are you?”

“Well, yeah?” Sam says like it’s obvious, “Why wouldn’t we be? As much as I hate to admit it, Mr. Lawrence’s skills are honestly really impressive.”

Miguel starts, “And with Mr. LaRusso and Miyagi-do’s training on top of that-”

Hawk cuts him off, “We’d be virtually unstoppable man!”

“I looked it up and it’s been  _ years _ since the Topanga dojo hasn’t made it to the semi-finals. I’m not even convinced Vidal would’ve even made it that far if you hadn’t been the only one representing Miyagi-do on the mat.” Demetri points out, gesturing to Sam.

“So,” he pinches the bridge of his nose with a sigh, looking to Sam, “What’s your plan? We  _ somehow _ convince our dads to train us,  _ to let us compete _ , after everything that happened? Mr. LaRusso can’t even  _ walk _ yet, and dad looks like he’s gonna pass out whenever he breathes too deep.”

He’s surprised, even though he knows he shouldn’t be when he’s met with a table full of determined faces, and Miguel’s voice is confident when he says, “We have to.  _ They  _ have to. It’s the only way to defeat Cobra Kai,” he grins, “We can do this Robby.”

And something in him almost believes him, but he’s still gotta ask, “And if they say no?”

Sam actually smirks, “They won’t.”

  
  
  


Surprisingly, to literally everyone but him, their response is pretty immediate.

“Oh no, absolutely fucking not.” 

The words hadn’t even been fully out of Miguel’s mouth when his dad shut him down.

Their small group had crowded into the back of Sam’s car(Demetri had complained the whole car ride when he ended up having to sit in Hawk’s lap), to head back to the dojo. The men were back in the kitchen, his dad holding what looked like another cup of coffee which  _ what the fuck when did the old man become a caffeine addict _ and he’d immediately straightened where he stood when he watched them all walk in, fixing them with a knowing stare.

“But Sensei,” Miguel tried again, “We need to do this. They’re never gonna leave us alone if we don’t.”

Aisha tries too, “Sensei please, we need to-”

“Diaz, Miss Robinson, I already said-”

“Kreese is back.” Sam cuts him off. Both men freeze.

“Sam,” her dad starts, swallowing visibly, “What do you mean, he’s  _ back _ ?”

The rest of them all shift on their feet, nervously, but Robby just rolls his eyes behind them, “His students came up to us at school- it was pretty obvious what they meant when they said ‘you disrespected Sensei Kreese and we can’t let that stand’. He’s still teaching them. Cobra Kai is still competing in the tournament.”

“There’s still police tape around the old dojo.” Daniel tries to reason, sounding unconvinced of his own statement.

“Doesn’t matter,” Hawk pipes up, “He’s gotta be teaching them  _ somewhere _ even if it isn’t there. They’re still learning while we’re sitting on our hands.”

“Mr. L, believe me, this is the last thing I want to do,” Demetri says with conviction in his voice, “But I don’t think they’ve left us much choice.”

Mr. LaRusso worries his lip between his teeth and looks at his dad, who’s been unusually quiet, a strange look on his face. He can tell they’re having a silent conversation even if he can’t tell what it’s about.

His dad looks back towards the group, nodding his head in the direction of the back door, “Just... give us a minute alright?”

They all shuffle out towards the backdoor, but they don’t go any farther than the porch. Robby shuts the door, almost all the way, even not to be noticed but so he can still crouch by the door and listen. Miguel crowds in behind him.

“Guys, what are you-” He turns to Sam, putting a finger up to silence her, her eyes go wide before she nods in understanding, the rest of them creeping up close by the door. 

The voices are muffled through the wood, but he can just barely make out the voice of Mr. L.

“Johnny I really don’t like this. This is a terrible idea.”

“And you think  _ I do _ ?”, clear frustration in his voice.

“Of course not, but fueling the rivalry is how we got into this mess in the first place.” LaRusso snaps back.

His dad pushes back, “Well it’s gonna have to be how we get out of it.” 

“How are we even supposed to train them? I can’t even  _ walk, _ Johnny. You’re not much better.” Mr. L has a little bit of desperation in his voice.

“Fuck I don’t know, but we gotta figure something out.” He can hear his dad’s temper rising, and he thinks for a split-second about barging back in there to stop them from fighting- Sam doesn’t look far behind him. He knows realistically that it wouldn’t be much of a fight in their states but he also knows that they’re both just stubborn enough to hurt themselves.

But it never comes.

“Daniel, I’m not gonna fight you on this,” his dad sighs, anger slipping out of his voice, “the kids are right and you know it- he isn’t giving us a choice. It’s just gonna get worse for them if we don’t do anything. Besides even if we say no you know they’re gonna find a way to do it anyway; might as well make sure they do it right.”

There’s a long pause, dead silent, before Mr. L chuckles, humorlessly, “How did we even manage to fuck up  _ this badly _ ?”

“Well I mean it’s us so,” he hears what he thinks is a small slap, but his father just presses on, “To be honest, I’m surprised everything isn’t worse.”

Another pause, “Alright. We’ll do it. We’ll figure something out.”

“You wanna call the kids back in?” he assumes Mr. L nods because then his dad calls out, “Okay, you can stop eavesdropping now!”

He doesn’t even bother to look sheepish when they go back, even when his dad fixes him with an almost amused smile. Mr. L looks at his dad in confusion, “Wait how did you...?”

His dad shrugs and smirks, “What you think I don’t know my kids even a little bit?”

Miguel steps up, face hopeful, “So you’ll do it right? You’ll train us again?”

He can see the way his dad leans back, watching Mr. LaRusso from his place by the counter, deferring it to him. He looks concerned still, eyes roving back and forth over the group before he heaves out a sigh, “Yes, yes we’ll train you,” He hears Hawk whoop from behind him, and he and the others break out in a chorus of excitement, that Mr. L is quick to try and subdue, “we will train you, on  _ one _ condition.”

“Anything, you name it!” Sam’s still got a smile on her face.

Mr. L looks over at his dad, something silent passing between them and when his dad nods, he turns back to him, “No more starting fights. This is for defense only. I’m not naive enough to pretend his students won’t try to provoke you but none of you can pick fights with them or  _ anyone  _ else. We’re not gonna have a repeat of the last year. Am I understood?”

He looks over at Miguel and Sam warily, can see the look mirrored on both of their faces, and looks around, and shares a tense look with the rest of them, before turning back around to face the two of them, nodding. 

“Deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have the organizational skills of a squirrel on caffeine so none of this is getting written in order I guess XD  
> no beta we die as Kreese should've in 1985


End file.
